Chapter 161: Testing (3)

Lord Victor nodded smoothly at Dr. Marcus’s words, stepping out of the observation booth and walking down the metal stairs onto the testing floor.

"I expected nothing less," Victor said, his crimson eyes locking onto mine with approval. "Your physical foundation is flawless, Seth. You possess the body of a prime physical combatant paired with an absolute conceptual soul."

I smiled shamelessly, brushing a stray strand of styled hair out of my face. "Glad to know I passed the warm-up."

Victor turned to the surrounding evaluators, who were still looking at me in awe. "Prepare the soul-resonance diagnostics for Phase Two. Today, we are going to see just how far his authority truly reaches."

....

Lord Victor led the way through the reinforced double doors at the back of the physical testing hall, taking us down a wide, rune-carved stone corridor. Val followed half a step behind my right shoulder, her sharp violet eyes scanning every archway out of pure instinct.

"The physical evaluation was merely the foundation," Lord Victor said, his smooth, refined voice echoing off the stone walls. "Phase Two will evaluate your soul resonance, mana density, elemental affinity, and conceptual authority. This is where the academy determines how your mind and spirit interact with the Astral World."

We arrived at a massive circular chamber made of polished black obsidian. The ceiling arched fifty feet above us, studded with glowing mana crystals that cast a soft indigo light across the room.

In the center of the floor stood three distinct testing stations: a massive crystal pillar embedded with glowing runic bands, a sealed glass sphere housing raw elemental matrices, and a floating golden alignment pad.

Dr. Marcus and his team of seven evaluators were already rushing into the chamber, carrying tablet terminals and recalibrating the primary sensors.

"Are the soul arrays calibrated, Dr. Marcus?" Lord Victor asked, stopping at the edge of the observation platform.

"Fully calibrated, Lord Victor," Dr. Marcus replied, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He looked at me with a mix of awe and lingering nervousness from the physical test. "Whenever you are ready, Seth. We will begin with Station One: Raw Mana Output and Spectral Density."

I stepped onto the central obsidian platform in front of the crystal pillar. The stone beneath my feet was cool, etched with intricate silver channels that flared faintly as I approached.

"Place both hands flat against the central pillar," Dr. Marcus instructed through the floor speakers. "Standard high-tier mages fill three to four runic bands on the pillar. S-Class archmages can ignite up to seven. Channel your internal mana steadily, do not force it all at once, or you might overheat the intake arrays."

’Paige,’ I called out mentally, looking at the towering crystal block in front of me. ’How much should I release?’

[Fufufu~ Don’t hold back too much, boss!] Paige giggled inside my consciousness. [Let’s give these stuffy scholars a tiny glimpse of what real authority looks like! Just funnel a light trickle of your core mana through.]

’A light trickle. Got it.’ I stepped up to the pillar and placed both palms flat against the smooth crystal surface.

HUMMMMMM.

The moment my skin touched the intake plate, my core mana stirred. A tiny thread of energy flowed out through my hands and entered the pillar’s runic channels.

BOOM-!!

The crystal pillar didn’t just light up, it let out a deep, reverberating pulse that shook the obsidian floor beneath our feet.

The first three runic bands ignited instantly into a blinding silver light. Within a fraction of a second, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh bands burst into brilliant golden illumination. But it didn’t stop there.

CREAK... BZZZZT!

The silver channels carved into the floor around the pillar began to glow red-hot. The indigo mana crystals on the ceiling flared so brightly they turned pure white. A thick, golden column of pure, unfiltered energy erupted from the top of the pillar, shooting straight up into the ceiling arrays.

The diagnostic monitors on Dr. Marcus’s console flared with red warning text.

[MANA OUTPUT: OFF THE CHARTS]

[SPECTRAL DENSITY: OVERFLOW]

[WARNING: CAPACITOR DRAIN AT 99.8%]

"Shut it down! Divert the energy to the auxiliary vaults!" Dr. Marcus yelled, his fingers flying across his holographic keyboard in a panic. "He’s filling the entire sub-station grid!"

I pulled my hands back from the pillar, casually wiping my palms against my trousers. The blinding golden light instantly collapsed, leaving the runic pillar humming softly with residual static. Smoke curled off the base of the intake plate, but the crystal itself remained intact.

I looked back at the observation console, giving Dr. Marcus a sheepish smirk. "My bad. Was that too much?"

Dr. Marcus stood frozen behind his desk, his jaw slack as he stared at the redlining energy meters. "Too... too much? Son, you just pumped enough raw mana into that pillar in three seconds to power the entire Eastern Academic Wing for a week!"

Beside him, two junior technicians were frantically typing data into their tablets, their hands shaking so badly they missed half the keys.

Lord Victor stood on the observation platform, his crimson vampire eyes gleaming with intense fascination. "Extraordinary. Pure, unrefined mana density at the peak scale. Proceed to Station Two: Conceptual Resonance and Soul Matrix."

I walked over to the floating golden alignment pad in the center of the chamber.

Positioned directly in front of the pad was a floating silver sphere carved with ancient conceptual runes. It didn’t measure raw magic power, it measured the depth, authority, and alignment of an Awakened’s Astral Soul.

"This is the Conceptual Mirror,’ Dr. Marcus explained, taking a long breath to compose himself. "Most Awakened resonate with a specific elemental concept-fire, spatial distortion, gravity, or bloodline traits. Stand on the pad, open your spiritual consciousness, and let the sphere reflect the nature of your soul."

Lord Victor added. "We already know about your Astral Soul, but it’s very vague so testing is necessary."

I nodded and stepped onto the golden pad.

I didn’t need to recite a complex spell or drop into a deep meditative trance. I simply closed my eyes for a split second and allowed the true nature of Origin to surface slightly within my chest.

THUMP.

A single, heavy heartbeat echoed through the room.

It wasn’t an explosive wave of energy like the previous test. Instead, the entire atmosphere inside the obsidian chamber fundamentally changed. The air went completely weightless. The indigo light from the ceiling crystals faded, replaced by a deep, boundless golden-white haze that seemed to stretch the room into infinite space.

Above my head, the vague, majestic shadow of the Astral World seemed to hover over the chamber, its fundamental architecture pulsing in tandem with my breathing.

The floating silver sphere in front of me didn’t flare or glow. It simply dissolved. The metal structure melted into pure liquid silver, floating in mid-air, before transforming into a glowing golden-white matrix that mirrored every fundamental concept in existence, fire, ice, space, time, gravity, life, and death, all existing simultaneously within a single unified point.

The diagnostic screens in the observation booth flickered, cleared, and then displayed a single line of text in ancient divine script.

[ASTRAL SOUL ALIGNMENT: ORIGIN]

[CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN: REALITY MANIPULATION]

[BOUNDARIES: UNDEFINED / UNCAPPED]

The quiet in the room was absolute. You could have dropped a needle on the stone floor and heard it bounce. Val stood behind my platform, her hands resting behind her back, though her violet eyes were fixed on the golden matrix hovering before me with quiet pride.

I stretched my arms, feeling the lingering warmth of my soul resonance fading back into my chest. Honestly, it felt amazing. For years, I had lived as a tired, overworked corporate nobody, constantly walking on eggshells and trying not to draw attention to myself.

Feeling this unbound authority flowing through my veins, and watching high-tier evaluators stare at me like I was a walking deity, was an incredible rush.

I turned around, looking at the observation booth with a calm, confident smile. "Is there a third test?"

Dr. Marcus slowly lowered his terminal tablet, looking up at Lord Victor with a helpless expression. "Lord Victor... there is no point in running the elemental affinity or spell-casting benchmarks. His soul matrix encompasses all elemental and spatial structures by default. Testing him on basic fire or spatial spells would be like asking an architect if he knows how to use a hammer."

Lord Victor let out a low, satisfied laugh. He stepped off the observation platform, walking smoothly down the stone steps onto the testing floor. He stopped three feet in front of me, adjusting his crimson tie as his sharp red eyes locked onto mine.

"That was quite the demonstration, Seth," Lord Victor said, his tone rich with genuine admiration. "In my centuries of serving as Head of Administration at Avalon, I have evaluated demigods, ancient dragon-kin, and divine descendants from every pantheon across the world. But I have never seen a soul matrix as absolute or boundless as yours."